All posts tagged "downloads"

Friday, February 11, 2011

"Netflix may be the Web's top movie rental service, but nobody sells more download-to-own movies than Apple, according to market research by iSuppli. Apple's iTunes accounted for 64.5 percent of all the money spent in 2010 on electronic sell through (EIS) and Internet video on demand (IVOD) despite facing increased competitive pressure from Microsoft's Zune (Xbox), Amazon, Sony's Playstation, and Wal-Mart. 'Microsoft in 2010 accounted for 17.9 percent of U.S. movie EST/IVOD consumer spending, up from 11.6 percent in 2009," iSuppli found. "Sony in 2010 maintained the No. 3 position in the U.S. with a 7.2 percent share, up from 5.7 percent in 2009.' Apple, however, did give up some ground last year. In 2009, iTunes held 74.4 market share, and its share fell 9 percent last year, according to iSuppli. The good news is that the overall market grew by more than 60 percent. Could this increase in download sales have hurt DVD sales?"

We're Number Two! We're Number Two! In all seriousness a year-over-year jump from 11.6% to 17.9% is pretty big, and shows that Microsoft may actually be doing something right in the online video market. The Zune video application on Xbox is a pleasure to use, especially with Kinect and Instant Streaming, and particularly compared with the AppleTV and PlayStation offerings. It also appears Microsoft and Sony's share increases come at the expense of iTunes sales, still the clear leader with 64.5%, which includes all sales through iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), AppleTV, and the juggernaut iTunes desktop software. As one CNet commenter points out, however, DVD sales are still the clear leader with $40-50 billion worldwide, and about 8.73 billion in the US alone. It will be a few years until VOD sales close the gap and eventually pass DVD sales, with some analysts predicting 2014 at the earliest. As they say, whoever wins, we all win.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

"Is iTunes still the most expensive digital music service? Which iTunes alternative offers the best deal for music lovers? Are digital albums a better deal than CDs? And just how much are you overpaying if you buy by the track instead of by the album? Those are the questions I set out to answer in this, the third installment of my "iTunes alternatives" series. My previous installments were in April 2009 and April 2010, and I had planned to wait until April of next year to revisit this turf. But so much has happened in the digital music space this year that I just couldn't wait. And there will probably be a whole new set of changes to look at by next April anyway."

Wondering how the likes of Amazon, Napster, Zune, and others stack up against iTunes in terms of pricing, availability, and other factors? Check out Ed Bott's article to find out more. Personally, I buy my MP3s from Amazon.com or HMV Digtial (in Canada) depending on who has the lower price. You?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

"Zune Pass is just such a subscription service, and it's a pretty good one… but lately, Zune Pass subscribers have been seeing their music collections just disappear into thin air. This can be a single song, an entire album or even whole artists' collections. Disappearing acts included, but weren't limited to, popular artists like Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend and Spoon. Now, when stuff like this happens, the usual culprit is that the record industry has re-negotiated its licensing deals with the service… which seems to be exactly what occurred. Microsoft has responded to customers' complaints by saying that their music has disappeared because record labels have pulled them."

This story's been making the rounds on the internet as of late. It appears that music from a number of artists is no longer available for Zune Pass download in the marketpace, and has been subsequently stopped working in Zune Pass holders' collections. Though Microsoft has stated that this decision is left up to the labels, there seems to be no larger reasoning behind what content has been pulled. For their part Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and promised to investigate. They are asking affected users to report missing music in the Zune.net forum thread.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

So you moved to a new PC, you wiped your harddrive, or you just want to re-download a track you deleted long, long ago. Lucky for you, the Zune team built a feature specifically for this purpose, and it's pretty simple to get to.

In the Zune software, go to Settings (in the upper-right hand corner of the screen) and then Account. In the left-hand menu select Purchases (it should be the third option down) and then select the individual songs you want to download, or click Restore All to re-download all of your previously-downloaded songs.